A Pastor in The Northwest

  In the ancient church tradition of Lent, the fourth Sunday is know as "Laetare" meaning to rejoice. It is the halfway point between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday and reminds followers of the paradox of rejoicing while suffering. The Eastern Orthodox call the season of Lent a 'bright sadness' where we experience joy and grief at the same time. I think I can understand this better the older I get. Something can be two things at the same time like beauty and danger or peace and adversity. Sometimes grief and joy are related. Loss and delight can be brothers and sisters. In a devotional I read today, I read this: As Francis Weller astutely notes, "to be alive and to love means we will also experience sorrow and loss. Acknowledging this reality enables us to find our way into the grace that lies hidden in sorrow. We are most alive at the threshold between loss and revelation." In the paradox of walking with Jesus, sometimes flourishing can appear to be loss...

The first mention of prayer shows up in Genesis 4:26 with the phrase, "at that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord..." What prompted this? Well, having children seems to be the immediate context, but I wonder, what draws us to prayer? What compels us to call out to the Lord? Is it desperation? Is it frustration? Is it a sense of being overwhelmed? Is it a celebration or thankfulness? Is it a desire for closeness to the Lord? According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, A classic definition of Christian prayer is “an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies." What is motivating your prayer today? I believe that no matter what is driving or compelling your calling out to the Lord today, it is all fitting in your relationship with Him! Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. -I Peter 5:7 NLT Photo by Amb...

For some reason, I've started studying the ancient Hebrew book of Leviticus.  It is the 3rd book of the Torah, and I find it quite fascinating.  One of the things I picked up recently is that in the first 3 chapters, all of the offerings described are 100% voluntary.  Also, those chapters contain no law from the Lord nor any condemnation. It is as if God wanted the people to know how to celebrate their gratitude for being liberated from Egyptian slavery. So whether the offering was burnt, or grain or for peace, it was all about a freewill offering to God for His amazing deliverance. I love how in those early chapters, we read the words "when" and "if" rather than "you must" or "it is decreed by the Lord." I'm excited to explore more in this book! Photo by REGINE THOLEN on Unsplash

In my morning time with the Lord, I was moved by these words from Isaac Watts: Come, we that love the Lord, And let our joys be known; Join in a song with sweet accord, And thus surround the throne. Isaac Watts, 1674–1748   Manser, M., ed. (2015). Daily Guidance (p. 51). Martin Manser. Now, these words form the first verse of an old hymn we used to sing back in the day at the little First Christian Church of Sheridan, Oregon. Until today, I didn't realize that the title of the hymn was different than the chorus from my childhood memory, which is: We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion! We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God! Truth be told, this hymn has a theological perspective on eternity and heaven that I may push back a bit on now as I'm older, but I love the scene painted by those words of worship in the verse.  I can imagine the disciples of Jesus singing and letting our joys be known, and together surrounding God's eternal throne...

This past weekend at Dallas Church, one of our preaching team members David taught us through Luke chapter 7.  In his takeaway, he encouraged us to trust Jesus to be transformed. It made me ponder the idea of transformation.  As a kid, I was into the Transformer toys.  I loved how the toys could be 2 different things: both vehicles and, with a few configuration changes, warrior robots. Amazing. As Christ-followers, we are called into transformation by our faith in Jesus.  In choosing to follow Him, we adopt His ways and soak in more and more of His work and teachings so that we are, slowly but surely, made new. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then yo...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the idea of mercy.   Songs have been written about it.   Movies have been made about it. People often ask for it.  Often, we are quite stingy with it. Mercy.   By definition, according to the smart people behind Merriam-Webster:  compassion, leniency, or restraint (as in imposing punishment) shown especially to an offender or to one subject to the power of another I've thought of mercy as not receiving punishment or a judgment that is well deserved. Unfortunately, our natural tendency is to want mercy for ourselves but justice for others. I want to be a person of mercy.   As Paul David Tripp wrote in his New Morning Mercies collection of devotionals,  "And as you begin to remember that God's mercy is your only hope and you meditate on the grandeur of the mercy that has been showered on you, you begin to want to help others experience that same mercy." Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord ha...